Voters who align themselves with either the Democrat or Republican party will vote on Saturday, May 10, to select a party candidate for Dranesville District supervisor.

The Democrats will hold an assembled caucus at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 10, at Langley High School, to select the nominee from among three candidates: John Foust, Fred Mittelman and Merrily Pierce.

Foust and Mittelman are both attorneys, and Pierce is on leave from her position as a legislative assistant to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman Katherine K. Hanley. All three live in McLean.

The Republicans will have a party canvass on the same day to select either Joan DuBois of McLean, who manages the Rail to Dulles proposal for public affairs consultant Marie Travesky, or Bob McConahy of Great Falls, parish administrator for St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Herndon.

The Republican Party’s canvass will be held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, at the McLean Government Center, 1437 Balls Hill Road in McLean.

The voting process was selected in a Fairfax County Republican Committee meeting on April 15 at Fairfax High School in Fairfax.

Providence, Hunter Mill and Mason districts will also select their candidates for supervisor on that day, assuming at least two Republican candidates have filed by the deadline at 5 p.m. on April 25. Any voter who is registered in Dranesville District can vote in the canvass.

“All legal and qualified voters” who intend to support Republican candidates “in the ensuing election” can vote in the Republican Party canvass, under state law. Just as in a general election, anyone who is registered is eligible to vote.

The Democrats’ assembled caucus is just that: a convened procedure that provides candidates an opportunity to speak. It is also open to any registered voter.

The detailed rules for the Democratic caucus were to be decided in a meeting of the Dranesville District Democratic Committee at the McLean Community Center on April 22.

At that meeting the party will also finalize the wording of the pledge of support, which it will ask voters at the caucus to sign.

IN VIRGINIA, where voters do not register as either Republicans or Democrats, any registered voter can vote in any primary.

At each of the caucuses, the respective parties may ask voters to pledge to support the person who is ultimately selected as the party’s candidate in the general election on Nov. 4.

Because state law does not distinguish among registered voters, any voter can attend either caucus to vote for a candidate.

TWO REPUBLICAN candidates for the Virginia Senate seat now held by Democrat Janet Howell of Reston will face off in the June 10 open primary.

Dave Hunt of Great Falls and Howie Lind of McLean are vying for the party’s nod to oppose Howell this fall.

In that process, an open primary, Republicans will vote at their usual polling places on June 10 to select the candidates for Fairfax County sheriff and chairman of the Board of Supervisors.